Here's a brief excerpt from "Lessons from Joe," a personal essay that appeared in the Healing Project anthology Voices of Lung Cancer:
By the end of the fall of 1997, Joe was too weak and sick to do much of anything. He could still ride out to the old place, though. One warm November day, Joe and I sat on the screened porch of a fragile old house on one side of the land he had grown up on. Before us, the autumn sun blazed down on the fields where he and his parents had grown food to eat and sugarcane to turn into syrup. It blazed also on the bigger house where he had spent the first 17 years of his life, and on the thick piney woods where he had hunted and cut firewood.
The fields, the porch, and the house behind us were just quiet and still enough for Joe to say something about the war, just an offhand comment, maybe about how cold it had been over there in the winter of 1944. After a pause, I said something about how tough it must have been to be so far from home at such a young age. After another pause, I said I couldn’t imagine being an infantryman, just a regular soldier on the ground. Joe told me he had been part of a mortar squad, dropping shells into a tube and watching them explode a few hundred yards away. “Sometimes you could see the bodies fly up,” he murmured, shaking his head. I didn’t know what to say to that. Joe just leaned forward, resting his popeye forearms on his knees. He brushed back his pale gray and red hair. “A lot of bad stuff happened over there,” he said. “I guess that’s why I’ve got this.”
Why didn’t I jump right up and tell him that his cancer was not a punishment for what he had done in the war? I never know what to say, and in this case it took me a few moments to see what he meant. I immediately sensed that one word from me might unleash a torrent of war memories, the worst ones, the ones he hadn’t told to a soul. Alone on the porch out in the country, he could have told me everything, and he wanted to. But I just sat there, unable to think of a thing to say. I checked my watch, then changed the subject.
To contribute to The Healing Project's worthwhile efforts on behalf of those who experience cancer, Alzheimer's, alcoholism and other challenges, visit their website. To buy one of their Voices of... anthologies, visit Amazon.com.
The official website of writer and teacher Angus Woodward
NYC 2006
Caution: Guy Writing
Angus Woodward is a writer and a teacher of writing. He has taught college writing since 1990 and is the founding director of the Center for Innovative Teaching & Engagement at Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His books of fiction are Down at the End of the River (Margaret Media, 2008), Americanisation (Livingston Press, 2011), and Oily (upcoming in 2018 from Spaceboy Books). His writing has been published a variety of periodicals, including recent scholarly pieces in Faculty Focus and Impact, short stories in Fiction Southeast and Alimentum, and personal essays in Medical Literary Messenger and Normal School.
Oxford American hailed Americanisation as “a hilariously crafted postmodern novel wedged into the template of a social-studies textbook for immigrants.” Of Americanisation’s innovative form, the New York Journal of Books said, “Since the novel is 500 years old, it has been hypothesized that the idiom is exhausted of original ideas. With Americanisation, Mr. Woodward disproves this hypothesis….” Americanisation also made Library Journal’s list of notable first novels for fall 2011. Michael Griffith called it " A darkly comic, delightful book.” Michael Martone said it was "...a hilarious simulacrum, a map more detailed than the thing it is meant to represent," and added, "It is drop-dead, deadpan funny.” You can contact Angus at awoodw64(at)gmail.com.
Journal and Anthology Publications
NON-FICTION:
*"I Wrote Something. This Is Not It," (Normal School, 2009)
*"Eleven in the Huddle," (Sport Literate, 2008)
*“Louisiana’s New Political Landscape,” (Living Blue in the Red States [anthology], University of Nebraska Press, 2007)
*“Lessons from Joe,” (Voices of Lung Cancer [anthology], LaChance, 2007)
*“Subjects for Other Conversations by John Stigall,” (Xavier Review, Summer 2002)
*“Frozen Embraces/Zamrznuti Zagrljaji by Biljana Obradovic,” (World Literature Today, Winter 2002).
*“Le Riche Monde by Biljana Obradovic,” (Prairie Schooner, Fall 2001).
*“Voodoo Poems and Magic Prose,” (The Writer's Chronicle, March/April
2001).
*“Trespassers,” (Brevity, Fall 1999).
*“Aviary Slag by Jacques Servin,” (Iowa Review, December 1997).
*“Anthony Kellman's Watercourse,” (Northwest Review, Spring 1992).
*“Toward a Definition of Poetic Fiction,” (Calypso, December 1990).
*“Anne Waldman's Helping the Dreamer,” (New Delta Review, Fall 1989).
*FICTION:
*"Applesauce" (Stolen Stories [anthology], Forest Publications)
*“The Product Tester’s Report” (Mochila Review, 2007)
*“Bad Word Storm” (Nightsun, 2007)
*“A Brief History of Toast” (Alimentum, Summer 2006)
*“Captivated” (Xavier Review, Spring 2004)
*“One Thing You Must Never Do” ( Sudden Stories [anthology], Mammoth Books, 2003)
*“Out There in TV Land,” (Pennsylvania English, Spring 2001).
*“Don't Put Me Down,” (Talking River Review, Summer 2000).
*“All Hail Digredi,” (In Praise of Pedagogy [anthology], Calendar Islands,
2000).
*“The Ride,” (Habersham Review, Spring 1998).
*“Hampton Figs,” (Gulf Stream Magazine, Spring 1997).
*“Qatar Is an Emirate,” (Louisiana Literature, Fall 1992).
*“The Story of Jane and George,” (The Dominion Review, Spring 1992).
*“Arrivals and Departures,” (The Laurel Review, Winter 1992).
*“Sooner or Later,” (Innisfree, July-August 1991).
*“Ice Cold,” (Innisfree, May-June 1991).
*“First Things First,”(Tucumcari Literary Review, September 1990).
*“Curiosities,” (Soundings East, July 1990).
*“That Particular Incident,” (Poultry, Fall 1989).
*POETRY:
*“The Recipe for Tomato Cabal” (Alimentum, Summer 2006).
*“A Tour of the Ferocious,” (Visual Poetry: An Artistic Dialogue, Baton Rouge Gallery exhibit and exhibition catalog, 1999).
*“Sisterhood,” “Gunland,” and “El Cheapo Poem About My Old Guitar Teacher,” (KingLog, Fall 1998:).
*“Untitled Ode #5,772,” (Satire, Spring 1997).
*“The Seven Thousandth Day,” (Wisconsin Review, Winter 1993).
*“Azalea Street Winter,” (The Bellingham Review, Spring 1992).
*“The Newsman's Premonition,” (Birmingham Poetry Review, Summer 1991).
*“Love Song in Two Dimensions,” (Rhino, Fall 1990).
*"I Wrote Something. This Is Not It," (Normal School, 2009)
*"Eleven in the Huddle," (Sport Literate, 2008)
*“Louisiana’s New Political Landscape,” (Living Blue in the Red States [anthology], University of Nebraska Press, 2007)
*“Lessons from Joe,” (Voices of Lung Cancer [anthology], LaChance, 2007)
*“Subjects for Other Conversations by John Stigall,” (Xavier Review, Summer 2002)
*“Frozen Embraces/Zamrznuti Zagrljaji by Biljana Obradovic,” (World Literature Today, Winter 2002).
*“Le Riche Monde by Biljana Obradovic,” (Prairie Schooner, Fall 2001).
*“Voodoo Poems and Magic Prose,” (The Writer's Chronicle, March/April
2001).
*“Trespassers,” (Brevity, Fall 1999).
*“Aviary Slag by Jacques Servin,” (Iowa Review, December 1997).
*“Anthony Kellman's Watercourse,” (Northwest Review, Spring 1992).
*“Toward a Definition of Poetic Fiction,” (Calypso, December 1990).
*“Anne Waldman's Helping the Dreamer,” (New Delta Review, Fall 1989).
*FICTION:
*"Applesauce" (Stolen Stories [anthology], Forest Publications)
*“The Product Tester’s Report” (Mochila Review, 2007)
*“Bad Word Storm” (Nightsun, 2007)
*“A Brief History of Toast” (Alimentum, Summer 2006)
*“Captivated” (Xavier Review, Spring 2004)
*“One Thing You Must Never Do” ( Sudden Stories [anthology], Mammoth Books, 2003)
*“Out There in TV Land,” (Pennsylvania English, Spring 2001).
*“Don't Put Me Down,” (Talking River Review, Summer 2000).
*“All Hail Digredi,” (In Praise of Pedagogy [anthology], Calendar Islands,
2000).
*“The Ride,” (Habersham Review, Spring 1998).
*“Hampton Figs,” (Gulf Stream Magazine, Spring 1997).
*“Qatar Is an Emirate,” (Louisiana Literature, Fall 1992).
*“The Story of Jane and George,” (The Dominion Review, Spring 1992).
*“Arrivals and Departures,” (The Laurel Review, Winter 1992).
*“Sooner or Later,” (Innisfree, July-August 1991).
*“Ice Cold,” (Innisfree, May-June 1991).
*“First Things First,”(Tucumcari Literary Review, September 1990).
*“Curiosities,” (Soundings East, July 1990).
*“That Particular Incident,” (Poultry, Fall 1989).
*POETRY:
*“The Recipe for Tomato Cabal” (Alimentum, Summer 2006).
*“A Tour of the Ferocious,” (Visual Poetry: An Artistic Dialogue, Baton Rouge Gallery exhibit and exhibition catalog, 1999).
*“Sisterhood,” “Gunland,” and “El Cheapo Poem About My Old Guitar Teacher,” (KingLog, Fall 1998:
*“Untitled Ode #5,772,” (Satire, Spring 1997).
*“The Seven Thousandth Day,” (Wisconsin Review, Winter 1993).
*“Azalea Street Winter,” (The Bellingham Review, Spring 1992).
*“The Newsman's Premonition,” (Birmingham Poetry Review, Summer 1991).
*“Love Song in Two Dimensions,” (Rhino, Fall 1990).
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